Home. Even thinking of home made her wince inwardly. It was so quiet there these days, since Cindy had left for college. Meredith had honestly thought this wouldn’t be so difficult since she’d been through it twice before. But, when the older ones moved out, there was always someone left behind. When David graduated and went to boot camp, Kelly had just finished middle school, and Cindy was still losing baby teeth and bringing home stray puppies. Four years later, when it was time for Kelly to leave for college, at least Cindy was still there. Now, there was no one but Frank and herself, and their nine year old Basset hound, Boxer. This was the very same puppy, of course, that Cindy had snuck into the house three days before David’s graduation party. In all the rush to get things ready and the house cleaned up, Meredith hadn’t noticed him until she discovered a pile of puppy poop outside the hall closet and the dust ruffle on her guest bed chewed to bits. Back then, Meredith wasn’t working outside the home, and she ran a tight ship. She was furious over the mess, and had ordered Cindy to get rid of the dog immediately. Cindy, like always, ran to her dad and begged for mercy. And, like always, Frank handled the situation with a quiet sense of calm.
She paused and looked up from her invoices, recalling the scene. There she was on one side of Frank, frantic with anger at the mess the dog had made the way it had disrupted what she intended to be a perfectly clean home for a perfect party. On the other side was Cindy – nine years old and all earnestness and drama – sobbing and pleading for her daddy to save the poor, tiny, little animal. Frank looked at his wife, and then at his daughter. He waited for the wailing and yelling on either side of him to subside before issuing his quiet decree. After a moment of silence, he reached out a finger and scratched the little dog under its chin. “Well, let’s just give this a try and see what happens.” Cindy hugged him gleefully and dashed to her room with the puppy’s head bobbing off into the distance with her.
Meredith felt a bit ashamed as she remembered that day. Cindy had been happy, but she had not, and was sure that she had probably punished Frank for the decision in some way or another, even though he was the one who had cleaned up the puppy’s accident and changed the bedding. And, of course, he had been right in his decision. Though it irked her to no end, he almost always was right. His ‘let’s just give this a try and see what happens’ attitude had brought no end of good things into their lives. He had said that right before he swept her into his arms and kissed her at the end of their first date, in the quiet moment in the church’s foyer right after their wedding recessional, as he swaddled and rocked his firstborn child, and, of course, the day that they decided to keep good old Baxter. Though Meredith preferred to take decisive action and make bold statements, she had to admit that Frank’s philosophy had been good to them, and he seemed so much happier and more content in life than she felt. After all, she’d only been working for 12 years in the workforce, and had been dreading having to come in to work for months now. On the other hand, Frank had been steadily plugging away, working every day, for 35 years - ever since he started going to jobsites with his dad when he was 15 years old. If there was one thing you could say about Frank, it was that he was reliable.
The phone jangled in the corner of her desk, and Meredith was startled back to the real world from her land of long-ago memories.
“Langston Bathroom Fixtures, this is Meredith speaking.” The phone call was from a distributor a few counties away, wanting to know when their shipment would be arriving. When she hung up, she was more depressed than ever. So, this is what her life had come to – the highlight of her days was telling someone a hundred miles away not to worry because their toilets would, indeed, be there by noon. She decided to cancel her 2:00 appointment and take the rest of the day off after all. Invoices and pay checks could wait. It was good to have so much flexibility in her job. Since she was salaried, she didn’t have to account for each and every hour she worked. Her boss, Ed Langston (son of the original owner of the company) only cared that she got things turned in on time and kept her desk tidy. It was a good arrangement, especially in such difficult financial times when so many people were losing their jobs and companies were looking for ways to be leaner and more efficient. Meredith knew she should be more appreciative, but her job still felt like a stone around her neck, and she dreaded the thought of having to work for 16 more years before she could retire.
She nodded to the front office receptionist on her way out, but the woman didn’t even notice. She was busy taking a call and shuffling paperwork with a frown - clearly in the middle of a hectic workday. All that work and dedication, and she was just a temp. Meredith grimaced with guilt, and hastened out the glass doors and to the parking lot. The late-September sun was startlingly hot, and her minivan was like an oven. It was an old vehicle, and had seen their family through a lot. It had only been a little over a month before that all five of them had been together in that very van. She clicked her seatbelt on, turned the key in the ignition, and cranked the AC to full. As she looked in her rear view mirror to back out, she noticed that there was still a book in the back seat from their trip.
Their oldest child, David, who had given his heart to the Marines when he was sixteen, and signed his life over to them two years later, was still a military man. Long after most of his buddies had decided to get out and pursue life as civilians, David had pressed on, seeking higher offices and more knowledge. In early August, he had finished a grueling six-month special ops program. Because he was deployed and in training so much of the time, there were only a handful to times that the whole family had been together since he had left home. Meredith and Frank had decided that his graduation from special ops training was cause for celebration. And, since Kelly was off from college for the summer and Cindy had just finished high school, it was the perfect opportunity to take what would most likely be their final family vacation.
Meredith had wanted to do something big, go somewhere exciting. She had always wanted to spend a vacation sitting on a beach sipping fruity drinks, and suggested that they take a family cruise together. Frank, of course, didn’t want to spend that much or be that far away from home, and suggested a road trip to the kids instead. It never ceased to amaze Meredith that practicality, apparently, is a dominant gene, and the children all chose a road trip through the Appalachians over her beach paradise. So, they had spent 10 days cooped up together in their old van, stopping during the day to hike a trail or see some roadside attraction, and staying each night at local hotels or camping under the stars. She had to admit, Frank had been right again. The vacation was everything she could have asked for, and created wonderful memories that would last a lifetime. Memories that made her feel a little old, and a little sad at times, but wonderful memories nonetheless.
Not many families could be together so much for so long and still be on speaking terms. Kelly had once said, when she was about eight years old, that she thought their family was different from others – better than others. At the time, Meredith had pooh-poohed her announcement, and reminded her that all families had their strengths and weaknesses, made their own choices, functioned differently. Looking back, though, at the years behind them, Meredith had to admit that maybe Kelly was right. She and Frank had gotten married when they were still just kids – she was 20, and he was 21. The odds of their marriage lasting as long as it had (was it possible they had really celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary just three months earlier!?) were not good. She had read somewhere that only something like 4% of couples married so young make it to their 25th anniversary. And yet, here they were, still going strong. Or, at least still going. Meredith pushed the button and rolled her window down.
“Yes, I’d like a number two with an iced tea, please.” She pulled forward and paid. As she drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and waited for her food to arrive, she tried to zero in on feeling good that the iced tea didn’t have as many calories as a soda would have. Of course, the overwhelming feeling that she was struggling to suppress was guilt. Fastfood burgers and fries were a large part of the reason she carried those extra pounds around with her, and this indulgence would probably send the scale’s reading in the wrong direction again, but she didn’t care. It felt good to not have to think about what she would make when she got home, and she was starting to get a headache. When her food arrived, she had already taken the first bite of her sandwich before she even merged into traffic again. It tasted good, but didn’t sit well in her stomach.
